


Skipping Stones

by audaciousDreamer



Category: Naruto
Genre: AO3 1 Million, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:25:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audaciousDreamer/pseuds/audaciousDreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Madara, Hashirama, and a river. The other side has never seemed so far away. Implied Hashirama/Madara, mentioned Hashirama/Mito.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skipping Stones

**Author's Note:**

> AO3 reaches 1 million, and I felt like I had to post... something. Even if it's not new, kinda short, and I admit to not being that great when it comes to writing. This was written a while ago- I think it was for a prompt on naruto_meme on livejournal. Don't remember what exactly the prompt was and whether I posted this on there.
> 
> Premise is something like "A meeting between the two after Madara finds out Hashirama got married". A bit- or maybe a lot- of OOCness ahead.

 

=[]=

  
Dusk approaches, and the sun kisses the horizon, its last rays tinting the sky in shades of brilliant red and orange.  
  
The two men standing on opposite sides of the river where they first met take no notice of the picturesque sunset, however, and have eyes only for each other.  
  
The air is heavy with summer moisture-  
  
 _(do you feel it? a storm is coming.)_  
  
-and a thousand unspoken apologies and accusations and regrets. Neither shinobi acknowledges them, though- at least not yet- and instead listen to the gentle murmuring of the stream and the buzzing of cicadas.  
  
They'd skipped stones across this river, once.  
  
 _(arms too short to touch- so they skip stones to touch for them, even if they never reach the other side.)_  
  
Now, Hashirama picks up a pebble and spins it over the water- one, two, three. It sinks.  
  
 _(senju hashirama tries to reenact a scene from a time long since slipped out of reach- but it takes two)_  
  
Madara watches the water close over the stone, ripples quickly swallowed by the current. He watches, but even if some part of him-  
  
 _(the ghosts of memories of skipping stones)_  
  
-itches to pick up the speckled black pebble at his feet, pale, slender arms remain folded across his chest.  
  
 _(defensiveness. he is uchiha, he does not need such pointless gestures- yet he still follows the instinct to do so)_  
  
 _(their arms are longer now, but the river is wider, too. the stones still don't reach the other side)_  
  
The Senju clan head's-  
  
 _(clan head. has time passed so fast? but where is the wisdom that comes with age? where is the knowledge of how to make things right?)_  
  
lips twist into a half-smile-half-grimice, the edges trembling- an imitation, a caricature of what it could have been- before fading. The outstretched-  
  
 _(why won't you take it)_  
  
-hand falls back to his side.  
  
Madara breaks-

_(breaking. a hammer against fragile glass. destruction, ruthless and calculating, befitting of an Uchiha. but it's not quite like that this time, isn't it?)_

-the silence stretching between them with six words. "I hear congratulations are in order."  
  
He has never been one for enthusiastic declarations, but Hashirama can hear the bitter hurt and betrayal hidden beneath the stoic facade.  
  
 _(and it_ _ **is**_ _a facade. not real. but he doesn't want anyone to see the raging storm of whyareyoudoingthistome)_  
  
Lips press into a thin line. "Mito-san is-"  
  
He sneers, taciturn demanor cracking like newly formed spring ice. "Your new wife."  
  
"It was a good match."  
  
They both know just how empty and meaningless the words are.  
  
"I thought-"  
  
There are a million ways that sentence can end, but Hashirama never discovers what is it that Madara meant to say, for a clan member arrives with a message for him, and he offers the Uchiha a brief word of apology and backward glance before leaving.  
  
 _(hashirama knows how to build bridges, physical or otherwise- it's almost easy, with his charisma and mokuton. but this river, the one the matters the most, is one he can't cross no matter how hard he tries, not when the bridge is burned- but was it he or madara who burned it?)_

_(regret. shame. sorrow. bury it, hide it. no one's supposed to see, to know, **he's** not supposed to  **feel this** )_

_(don't look back. ignore the dread and resignation, the **knowing** , that he is casting the die, that things would never be the same again. listen to all those supposed-tos that whisper of_ _clan_ _and_ _shinobi_ _and village_ _and **duty** )_

Alone, Madara falls to his knees-  
  
 _(why won't his legs hold him? even his own body is betraying him)_  
  
-and _laughs_ , helpless rage and bitter resignation and hollow grief and hatred that tastes of ashes.  
  
It's not a happy sound.  
  
 _(do you see it, feel it? the flames burn, hatred born of betrayal. red and black eyes spin in the darkness- this is the legacy of the uchiha)_

  _(one day, he will make even the gods themselves bow to his might.)_

 _(and the world will_   ** _kneel_** _)_


End file.
